Thoughts about work and B5 A4 

"Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle" (1500sand535) 09/20/2016 at 12:18 • Filed to: None

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The homeless person that was in all day yesterday with a bag of trash in tow did not return but his smell and the smell of garbage remains.

Some guy yesterday was very into some free citizen stuff that he read on the Internet. It hurt my ears listening to the stupidity of it all. One unique feature of these free citizen types is that they tell everyone about their dumb stuff.

I’m going to get down to business on some of my departments web design.

The parking lots that I walk through from where I park to get to work are on the whole, not so impressive and the most interesting cars are:

My Porsche 944 (yes I’m biased), a 2000s Ford Thunderbird(I think these things look classy), Mercedes C230 Kompressor hatch with a Manuel in bright red, some sort of challenger, e39 540i.

Nearby though, there is a parking lot that regularly has a Z3 coupe, a Non garage queen viper, porsche 911s, and a jaguar f type. Maybe an e36 m3 as well.

In a non work note. As many of you know my wife has been not so impressed by 3 car ownership, but my thought pattern lately is, what if it was a different third car? Specifically a B5 A4 Avant with the 2.8 and a manual. Which from what I gather is the closest thing to reliable an Audi A4 is going to get, particularly if you find a 12v, but those for all practical purposes don’t exist as far as I can tell. Nothing clean very close to us, this one looks good but is 200 miles away:

Chris Clarke > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 09/20/2016 at 12:23

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Had mine for 10 years now. Part of the family. Wife would cry if i sold her.

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > Chris Clarke 09/20/2016 at 12:26

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Ahhh yes, in its natural habitat.

Is it a 2.8 or 1.8t, how’s ownership been?

TysMagic > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 09/20/2016 at 12:28

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Vote for yes from me! I had a b4 cabriolet with the 2.8L, the car was extremely reliable (outside of the EGR flipping the CEL on regularly, but that didn’t effect drive-ability).

Chris Clarke > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 09/20/2016 at 12:30

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2.8 slushbox. Fantastic. Has its moments. Happy enough that I bought a B5 S4 as my daily. I do all my own maintenance so it keep costs down, but nothing major.

Tristan > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 09/20/2016 at 12:39

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“One unique feature of these free citizen types is that they tell everyone about their dumb stuff.”

See also: Veganism, Crossfitters, Vapers.

Amoore100 > TysMagic 09/20/2016 at 12:41

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Sounds like the same level of reliability I’ve come to expect from a modern Volvo. Definitely makes me consider a 2.8 now...

OPPOsaurus WRX > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 09/20/2016 at 13:08

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OPPO is increasing its Audi Wagon ownership numbers., I like this. do it.

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > OPPOsaurus WRX 09/20/2016 at 13:40

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Well, it would take a little while. Convince wife that three German cars is better than 2 Germans and a ford. Sell ford freestyle. find Audi A4 avant with manual. Then buy a4 avant. But yeah, in an ideal world this would happen.

I think I need to first float the idea of getting a project Allroad to put a v8 in and then follow up with, “or we could just get a nice little a4 I guess.”

OPPOsaurus WRX > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 09/20/2016 at 13:44

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allroads came with a V8, but only in automatic form. there are entire kits for the manual swap.

TysMagic > Amoore100 09/20/2016 at 13:46

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It outlasted the e46 and multiple Jags I had at the same time. It was a real winner in my book

Dave the car guy , still here > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 09/20/2016 at 13:51

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I owned one of the earliest 2.8 30V engines in my B5. Car was a May 97 production date. I know a lot about 2.8 and 1.8 models having owned both. If you get it and have any questions I might be able to help.

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > OPPOsaurus WRX 09/20/2016 at 14:45

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There is a manual Allroad 2.7 with a blow engine near me, I assumed a 4.2 would bolt up because it came in the a6 but would obviously do more research before springing for it.

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > Dave the car guy , still here 09/20/2016 at 14:46

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Thanks Dave.

OPPOsaurus WRX > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 09/20/2016 at 14:47

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someone on here just picked up an Allroad with a blown engine. The 4.2 doesn;t just bolt up but JHM makes a complete kit to do it.

Dave the car guy , still here > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 09/20/2016 at 14:49

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Noppo problemo

Garrett Davis > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 09/20/2016 at 14:53

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Do it!!

I think that combination probably is the most reliable option for a B5, and it would be one hell of a comfy daily.

I agree with Opposaurus, we need more Audi wagon owners in our ranks.

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > Garrett Davis 09/20/2016 at 18:46

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I think all in all I like this plan, so I’m going to try. I’ll start by listing our freestyle, and then see. Freestyles tend to be decently sought after cars because they seat 7 and ours is AWD, which also helps but they have an undeserved reputation for being unreliable(lots of people post on the Internet about throttle body failure as transmission problems).

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > OPPOsaurus WRX 09/20/2016 at 19:51

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I plan to live vicariously through that person. It's such an awesome project.

jkm7680 > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 09/21/2016 at 16:21

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Former ‘97 A4 2.8 owner here.

Mine had 140,000 miles when I sold it and literally never left me or the previous owners stranded. No repairs besides wear items were ever needed and it was a excellent car all around. Still extraordinarily solid too. Probably one of the best and most reliable cars Audi has ever made.

The 12v 2.8 is a very underrated engine. Reason they’re not as popular among Audi enthusiasts is that you can’t reprogram the ECU so that means no tunes. The 30v version of the motor (1998-01) is still pretty reliable, but not nearly as reliable as the 12v.

Also, the Avant bodystyle was never available with the 12v in the United States. 1996 and 1997 were the only years the 12v engine was available in the United States and 1998 was the first year of the Avant and 30v variant.

If you have any questions, let me know!

Here it is

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > jkm7680 09/21/2016 at 18:55

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Thanks for the input. My wife actually thought it was a really good idea(I think she wants me to get rid of the 944 and she knows if I have a decently peppy manual car, chances of that happening are higher and honestly, she's right), so I’m going to list our freestyle and start shopping.

I’m shocked at how many A4s there are and how few of them are avants, and how few of those are manual. Damn!

I didn’t realize no 12v avant, so I’m glad you told me.

jkm7680 > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 09/22/2016 at 15:53

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There are quite a lot of B5s around, a good chunk of them are manual.

When I bought mine, there were like 10 manual ones listed and only like three automatic ones.